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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 



L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO 
COMUS, AND LYCIDAS 



BY 



JOHN MILTON 



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NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
1894 



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Copyright, 1 894, by 
American Book Company. 

Milton. 



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INTRODUCTION. 



John Milton was born in London in 1608. He was edu- 
cated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1632. 
While yet a student, he wrote several of his shorter poems, and 
the hymn " On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." Between 
1632 and 1638 he wrote ''Arcades," "Comus," " Lycidas," 
" L' Allegro," and "II Penseroso." In 1638 he visited France 
and Italy, returning to England in the following year. From 
that time until after the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, he 
published no poetry, but was actively engaged in political con- 
troversy, or occupied with his official duties as Latin secretary to 
Cromwell. His greatest work, " Paradise Lost," begun in 1658, 
was pubhshed in 1665. ''Paradise Regained" and "Samson 
Agonistes " were both published in 1671. Milton died in 1674. 

In the four poems comprising this volume we have the best 
of the earlier works of John Milton. No criticism of them has 
been more widely accepted than the statement that they proved, 
upon their first appearance, that another true poet had arisen 
in England. Written between the years 1632 and 1638, when 
great questions of Church and State were disturbing the minds of 
the English people, and preparing the way for the Puritan Revo- 
lution which very soon followed, they naturally reflect in some 

3 



4 INTRODUCriOX. 

measure the spirit of the times. In the heroic age of Elizabeth, 
which had just passed away, each subject had seemed to feel 
that he must uphold the honor of the English name at any cost. 
The influence of the spirit of chivalry had bound men together 
in the common ties of loyalty and national pride, and was appar- 
ent not more in the heroic achievements of Raleigh and of Drake 
than in the immortal works of Shakespeare and of Spenser. But 
now, under the tyranny of Charles I., and amid the rapid growth 
of commercial influences, the ennobling sentiments which had 
formerly shaped men's actions were being gradually stifled. The 
bonds of unfaltering loyalty and unquestioning obedience were 
being forced asunder by the opposition which royal despotism had 
aroused ; and every thinking mind was being swayed by rehgious 
unrest, or was seeking refuge in dogmatic assertion and ecclesi- 
astical authority. Even in literature a great change was appar- 
ent ; *' for a reaction had taken place from poetical impulse and 
heroic achievement to prosaic weariness and worldly wisdom." 
In order, therefore, to understand the deeper import and mean- 
ing of these early poems of Milton, one should enter upon theif 
study with some knowledge of the conditions of life and thought 
and purpose which prevailed at the time of their composition, 
and should bear in mind the influence which these must have 
had upon the poet and his utterances. 

John Milton graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 
1632, when twenty-four years of age. During the six years 
which followed, he remained in his father's home at Horton, 
Buckinghamshire ; and it was there that he wrote these poems. 
One might have supposed that the courtly manners of his early 
home, his musical tastes, and the teachings of his father would 
have bred in him a disinclination for the strict, self-denying life 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

of Puritanism. But he could not be oblivious to the underlying 
excellence of the Puritan doctrines, or neglectful of the demands 
of the times. To him, Duty was ever " the stern daughter of the 
voice of God." 

In " L'Allegro " (The Cheerful Man) and '' II Penseroso " (The 
Thoughtful Man) Milton presents, for his own contemplation and 
ours, pictures of the two paths which seemed at that time to open 
before him, — the life of a Courtier or Cavalier, and the life of a 
Puritan. He gives Italian titles to these poems, perhaps because 
there are no English equivalents which are exactly applicable to 
his ideals. In the first instance, to say " A Mirthful Man " would 
suggest a character too shallow or too frivolous, while the ex- 
pression *' A Cheerful Man" would fail to convey his entire mean- 
ing ; in the other case, to write of " A Thoughtful Man " would 
call up the image of a student or a philosopher, and lead to a 
hasty misjudgment of the intent of the poem. 

Each poem describes the pursuits and pleasures of twelve 
hours. L'Allegro is introduced to us at the first peep of dawn, 
listening to the cheerful song of the lark, the cockcrowing, and 
the music of the huntsman's horn ; then the fieldworkers are 
observed at their various tasks ; the landscape, with its ever 
changing beauties, delights the eye ; the humble cottage and the 
lordly castle each contributes a picture to the scene ; and when 
the day's duties are at an end, the evening is spent in social 
delights, in story-telling, in the reading of Jonson's comedies or 
Shakespeare's " wood-notes wild," or in listening to soft strains of 
music, 

'■'■ Untwisting all the chains that tie 
The hidden soul of harmony." 



6 INTR OD UC TION. 

II Penseroso starts out in the early evening hours ; he listens 
'to the song of the nightingale, or, as he walks in the moonhght, 
hears the far-off curfew sound; he spends the evening in the 
contemplation of the great tragedies of antiquity, or devotes the 
later hours of the night to the study of the mysteries of life and 
immortality ; and with the break of day he betakes himself to 
some quiet nook in the woods, or listens, under the "high-em- 
bowed roof" of church or cathedral, to the ecstatic music of 
full-voiced choir and pealing organ. 

Thus Mirth and Seriousness each finds its own enjoyments in 
life ; but it is plain that the poet's sympathies are with the latter. 
Perhaps, all unwitting 'to himself, he thus intimates the ultimate 
choice of his life, — to ally himself with the seriousness of Puri- 
tanism rather than permit the mirth of the Cavaliers to tempt him 
from the plain path of duty. Both poems are nature lyrics, with 
a reflective background which the reader must discover for |iim- 
self. Strictly speaking, they are not descriptive poems ; for " the 
charm of nature poetry is not its description — its rivalry with a 
painting of the scene ; it is the suggestive power of objects to 
stimulate the imagination." It is in this quality that the beauty 
and excellence of these two poems is chiefly to be found. 

" Comus," the third poem in this collection, is a dramatic com- 
position, — "a fine example of the high literary masque." This 
species of drama, which is of Italian origin, was introduced into 
England as early as the reign of Henry VIII., and when " Comus " 
was written it was in the height of its popularity. It combined 
lyric poetry, declamation, dialogue, music, and dancing, the whole 
being set off with elaborate scenery. When, as in this case, the 
literary element pjedominated, the performance was much like 



INTRODUCTION, 7 

that of. an ordinary drama ; but when the poem was subordinate 
to the scenery, the result was a pageant. 

" Comus " was written for presentation at Ludlow Castle, 
Shropshire, on Michaelmas night, 1634, the occasion being the 
induction of the Earl of Bridgewater into the office of Lord 
President of Wales, to which he had been appointed some three 
years before. Henry Lawes, a distinguished musical composer, 
had been intrusted with the preparation of an entertainment, or 
masque, to be performed in connection with the other festivities 
of the evening, and it was at his request that Milton undertook 
the composition of the poem. The leading parts in the play — 
those of the Lady and her Brothers — were taken by the Earl of 
Bridgewater's three children, while the part of the Attendant 
Angel was performed by Lawes himself. The names of those 
who personated Comus and Sabrina have not been preserved. 
The presentation took place in the great hall of Ludlow Castle, 
on a stage erected for the purpose at one end of the room. 

The story which the play brings out is said to have had some 
foundation in fact. There is a popular tradition, still extant in 
Shropshire, to the effect that the three children of the Earl of 
Bridgewater were actually overtaken by nightfall, and separated 
from one another in Haywood Forest near Ludlow. " If this 
ever took place, and news of it reached Milton's ears, then he 
simply dramatized the episode ; but it is far more probable that 
the legend, which dates from the last century, grew out of the 
masque, than vice versd^ 

In the writing of this masque Milton borrowed suggestions 
and ideas from many sources. The main incidents of the story 
are almost identical with those related in a play entitled " The 
Old Wives' Tale " by George Peele, published nearly forty years 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

before. Comus, as the personification of revelry, appears in 
Ben Jonson's masque of " Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue " (pub- 
lished in 1619), where he is apostrophized as 

" The founder of taste 
For fresh meats, or powdered, or pickled, or paste ; 
An emptier of cups." 

He also appears in a Latin play, entitled " Comus," written 
by Hendrik van der Putten, a Dutch professor at Louvain, and 
republished at Oxford in 1634. With this play as well as with 
Jonson's masque, Milton was no doubt familiar. In the writing 
of the last part of the poem — the disenchantment scene — he 
owed not a little to Fletcher's pastoral drama, *' The Faithful 
Shepherdess," which was very popular in the London theaters 
in 1633. In other passages the influence of earlier poets, and 
especially of Spenser, is plainly apparent. But whatever he may 
have borrowed, Milton infused into it new life and a new chaitn, 
not only presenting it in a highly improved form, but breathing 
into it the breath of fresh suggestion. 

The poem, besides having an obvious moral signification, was 
probably intended by Milton to admit of a deep allegorical inter- 
pretation. In it may be seen the influence of Spenser's " Faerie 
Queene " upon the thought and literary methods of the poet. 
Did he intend Comus to represent the corrupt influences of the 
then existing Court and Church, and the Lady and her friends to 
personify Virtue and her champions? Or did he intend to por- 
tray the conflict which is waged between Body and Soul, result- 
ing finally in the complete triumph of the higher nature over the 
lower ? " The bare fact that Milton wrote * Comus ' showed that 
he had not yet gone over to help the party which bore an unrea- 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

soning hatred of all amusements. On the other hand, the whole 
tone of the poem was a rebuke to the seekers of mere pleasure. 
The revel god personified the worst elements of court life. In 
his overthrow Milton allegorically foreshadowed the downfall 
of those who led that life. Two hundred and fifty years ago 
* Comus ' was terribly real, as a warning against the danger upon 
which the ship of national life was drifting. But the theme is 
true yesterday, to-day, and forever ; and the art with which it is 
set off remains undimmed, the wisdom unfading." (Verity.) 

" Lycidas," the fourth and last poem in the collection, is Mil- 
ton's tribute to his college friend and companion, Edward King. 
Milton and King had studied and written together, and their 
tastes and pursuits were in many respects identical. After grad- 
uation. King had remained at Cambridge, first as fellow, then as 
tutor, with the expectation of soon being ordained for the Church. 
In 1637 he embarked on a vessel at Chester, intending to go 
over into Ireland, to spend the long vacation with his relatives 
there. When hardly out to sea, in calm weather, the vessel 
foundered upon a rock, and nearly all on board were drowned. 
In the same autumn. King's friends at Cambridge pubhshed a 
volume of verses dedicated to his memory, and to this volume 
Milton contributed " Lycidas." 

The poem begins with the intimation that only grief for his dead 
friend had induced the poet to forego a resolution not to write 
more until he should be better able to attain to the high ideal he 
had chosen. In pastoral allegory he refers briefly to their com- 
mon tasks and pursuits, and represents all nature as bewailing the 
loss of Lycidas. Yet the reflection that naught could interpose 
to save his friend induces Milton to question the wisdom of 



I o INTRO D UC TION. 

human toil and aspiration. What is fame? Is it not a vain in- 
firrnity? But then he is reminded that true fame is of no earthly 
growth, and that Heaven alone can declare what shall be the 
reward of man's work. Then, returning to his grief for Lycidas, 
he listens to Triton, who makes inquiry concerning the cause of 
the shipwreck ; to Comus, asking mournfully who has bereft him 
of his dearest pledge ; and to St. Peter, bewailing the loss of 
so promising a youth. This leads him into another digression, 
wherein he rebukes the worldliness and greed of the clergy of the 
time, and by implication foretells their downfall. Then the poet 
resumes his strain, bidding all the flowers of wood and plain to 
bring their tribute to the memory of Lycidas ; and finally he is 
persuaded that the youth is not dead, but has been transported 
to " the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love," and will live 
henceforth as the Genius of the shore. The shepherds are bid- 
den to dry their tears ; and the poet declares that other subjects 
of thought and effort shall hereafter claim his attention — 

'' To-morrow to fresh fields and pastures new." 

"He who wishes to know whether he has a true taste for poetry 
or not, should consider whether he is highly delighted or not with 
the perusal of Milton's ' Lycidas.' " 




L'ALLEGRO. 



Hence, loathed Melancholy, 

Of Cerberus ^ and blackest Midnight born 
In Stygian cave forlorn 

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! 
Find out some uncouth cell, 

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, 
And the night raven sings ; 

There, under elion shades and low-browed rocks, 
As ragged as thy locks, 

In dark Cimmerian desert ^ ever dwell. i o 

But come, thou Goddess fair and free, 
In heaven yclept ^ Euphrosyne, 
And by men heart-easing Mirth; 
Whom lovely Venus, at a birth. 
With two sister Graces * more, 
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore : 

1 Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the 
infernal regions. His den, the " Stygian cave forlorn," was on the farther 
bank of the river Styx, where the spirits of the dead were landed from Cha- 
ron's boat. The Styx was the chief river of the lower world. 

2 The country of the Cimmerii, a sunless region on the confines of the 
lower world, where the spirits of the dead were condemned to sojourn awhile, 
ere they were admitted into Hades. (See Guerber. ) 

•^ A corruption of the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon word clipian ("to 
call "). It is frequently used by the older poets. 

4 The three Graces were Euphrosyne (the mirthful), Aglaia (the bright), 
and Thalia (the blooming). Classical writers do not agree as to their parent- 
age. That they were the daughters of Venus (love) and Bacchus (good 

II 



12 MILTON. 

Or whether (as some sager sing) ^ 
' The froHc wind that breathes the spring. 
Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 

As he met her once a-Maying,^ 20 

There, on beds of violets blue, 
And fresh-blown roses washed in dew. 
Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, 
So buxom, blithe, and debonair. */ 
Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
Jest, and youthful Jollity, 
Quips and cranks and wanton wiles. 
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles, 
Such as hang on Hebe's^ cheek. 

And love to live in dimple sleek ; 30 

Sport that wrinkled Care derides. 
And Laughter holding both his sides. 
Come, and trip it, as you go, 
On the light fantastic toe ; 
And in thy right hand lead with thee 
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ;* 
And, if I give thee honor due, 
Mirth, admit ^ me of thy crew, 

cheer), or perhaps rather of Zephyr (the "frolic wind") and Aurora (the 
morning) seems best to harmonize with Milton's conception of their character, 
and especially of that of Euphrosyne (mirth). 

1 " As some," etc., i.e., as some wiser (ones) sing. 

2 Enjoying the sports of May Day, as was formerly the custom in England. 
In Old English it was not uncommon to prefix " on " or " a " to a verbal 
noun after verbs of motion; as in " We go a-fishing. " 

3 The goddess of youth, and cupbearer to the gods. 

^ Note the reason for calling Liberty a mountain nymph. The environ- 
ment of mountainous regions has doubtless aided in developing physical 
strength and the desire to use nature's defenses in the maintenance of 
freedom. Mountainous Switzerland, with its liberty-loving people, may be 
mentioned as an example. 

5 The word " admit" is here equivalent to " permit." The phrase may 
be rendered, " Permit me, as one of thy company." 



r ALLEGRO. 13 

To live with her, and hve with thee, 

In unreproved pleasures free ; 40 

To hear ^ the lark - begin his flight, 
And, singing, startle the dull night, 
From his watchtower in the skies. 
Till the dappled dawn doth rise ; 
Then to come, in spite of sorrow. 
And at my window bid good-morrow, 
Through the sweetbrier or the vinCj 
Or the twisted eglantine ; 
While the cock, with lively din, 
^. Scatters the rear of darkness thin ; 50 

And to the stack, or the barn door, 
Stoutly struts his dames before : 
Oft listening how the hounds and horn 
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, 
From the side of some hoar hill. 
Through the high wood echoing shrill : 
Sometime walking, not unseen. 
By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, 
Right against the eastern gate 

Where the great Sun begins his state, 60 

Robed in flames and amber light, 
The clouds in thousand liveries dight ; 
While the plowman, near at hand, 
W^histles o'er the furrowed land. 
And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 
And the mower whets his scythe. 
And every shepherd tells his tale ^ 

1 This infinitive, as well as " to come," below, depends upon " admit," in 
line 38. 

2 Tne English skylark begins his flight before sunrise, singing as he soars 
upward, and sometimes passing into the light of the early sunbeams before 
they have reached the fields and valleys below. 

3 The words "tell" and "tale" are both from the Anglo-Saxon word 



14 MILTON. 

Under the hawthorn in the dale. 
* Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 

Whilst the landskip ^ round it measures : (o 

Russet lawns, and fallows gray, 

Where the nibbhng flocks do stray ; 

Mountains on whose barren breast 

The laboring clouds do often rest ; 

Meadows trim, with daisies pied ; 

Shallow brooks, and- rivers wide ; 

Towers and battlements it sees 

Bosomed high in tufted trees, 

Where perhaps some beauty lies, 

The cynosure ^ of neighboring eyes. 80 

Hard by a cottage chimney smokes 

From betwixt two aged oaks. 

Where Corydon ^ and Thyrsis ^ met 

Are at their savory dinner set 

Of herbs and other country messes. 

Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses ; 

And then in haste her bower she leaves, 

W^itli Thestylis to bind the sheaves ; 

Or, if the earlier season lead. 

To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 

Sometimes, with secure delight, 

The upland hamlets will invite. 

When the merry bells ring round, 

tellan, one meaning of which is " to count." The expression " tells his tale " 
is equivalent to " counts his number (of sheep)." 

1 " Landskip," now spelled " landscape," meant originally " landshape," 
that is, the shape or general aspect of the country. 

2 An object of great or general interest. The word comes from Cynocura 
(" the dog's tail"), the constellation of the Lesser Bear, by which the Phoe- 
nician mariners guided their course at sea, 

3 Corydon and Thyrsis are favorite names given to shepherds by writers 
of pastoral poetry. So, also, Phyllis and Thestylis are names often applied to 
rustic maidens or shepherdesses. * 



V ALLEGRO. 15 

And the jocund rebecks sound 

To many a youth and many a maid 

Dancing in the checkered shade, 

And young and old come forth to play 

On a sunshine holiday, 

Till the livelong daylight fail : 

Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, 100 

With stories told of many a feat, 

How Fairy Mab ^ the junkets eat. 

She was pinched and pulled,' she said ; 

And he,2,by Friar's lantern ^ led, 

Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 

To earn his cream bowl duly set, 

When in one night, ere glimpse of morn. 

His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn 

That ten day-laborers could not end ; 

Then lies him down, the lubber fiend,* no 

1 Fairy Mab, or Queen Mab, is the fairy tHat sends dreams. Read 
Shakespeare's description of her in Romeo and Juliet, Act i., sc. 4. 

2 The pronouns " she " (line 103) and " he " (line 104) refer to members 
of the company of youths and maidens mentioned above. The telling of folk- 
lore legends and fairy tales was a favorite amusement w^ith the country people 
in Milton's time, and the belief in fairies was very general. These mysterious 
little beings were supposed to be ever ready to play some trick or work some 
harm, and every misfortune or deed of mischief that could not be otherwise 
accounted for, was popularly ascribed to them. 

3 The "Friar's lantern" was probably the will-o'-the-wisp, or, as it is 
sometimes called, Jack-o'-lantern, — a delusive light which was supposed to 
be produced by souls broken out from purgatory, or by spirits trying to dis- 
cover hidden treasures. The " drudging goblin " Avas Robin Goodfellow, a 
domestic goblin, who did his tasks secretly by night. " Your grandames, 
maids, were wont to set a bowl of milk for him for his pains in grinding of 
malt or mustard and sweeping the house at midnight. His white bread and 
milk was his standing fee." (Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft.^ 

* " In the rustic imagination, Robin Goodfellow Avas represented as a huge, 
loutish fellow of great strength, but very lazy." The word " fiend," as used 
here, means " spirit" or *' goblin," without any necessary reference to his 
malignant character. 



i6 MILTON. 

And, stretched out all the chimney's length, 
' Basks at the fire his hairy strength, 
And cropful out of doors he flings, 
Ere the first cock his matin rings. 
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 
By whispering 'winds soon lulled asleep. 
Towered cities please us then, 

And the busy hum of men,i ^-^ , 

Where throngs of knights an d^ barons '^^^^l,,A^^,,^,,^y^^'^''^ ^"^ 
In weeds ^ of peace, high triumphs hold, 120 

With store of ladies, whose bright eyes 
Rain influence, and judge the prize 
Of wit or arms, while both contend 
To win her grace whom all commend. 
There let Hymen ^^ oft appear 
In saffron rcbe, with taper clear, 
And pomp, and feast, and revelry, 
With mask and antique pageantry ; 
Such sights as youthful poets dream 

On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 

Then to the well-trod stage anon. 
If Jonson's learned sock^ be on, 
Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 

1 " Towered cities," etc., i. e., taking our leave now of the sleeping rustics, 
we go to enjoy tjie scenes and pleasures of city life, the tournament, the 
theater, and the wedding festival. 

2 From Anglo-Saxon, waed (" clothing"). 

3 The god of marriage. He is represented in modern poetry as dressed 
in a saffron-colored robe ; and in works of art, as bearing a torch. 

* The sock was the low shoe worn by actors of comedy in ancient Greece 
and Rome ; hence the word is used as a symbol of the comic drama. Ben 
Jonson (English dramatist, 1 5 74-1 63 7) wrote several famous comedies, and 
the allusion to "Jonson's learned sock" was doubtless intended as a com- 
pliment to his erudition. Note how happily Milton contrasts Shakespeare, 
nature's own poet, and master of the romantic drama, with Jonson, the schol- 
arly master of the classical drama. 



L 'ALLEGRO. 1 7 

Warble his native wood-notes wild. 

And ever, against eating cares, 

Lap me in soft Lydian ^ airs. 

Married 2 to immortal verse, 

Such as the meeting ^ soul may pierce, 

In notes with many a winding bout 

Of^hnked sweetness long drawn out /I / ' 140 

With wanton heed and giddy cunning, /tl^'Oc^-'v^ 

The melting voice through mazes running. 

Untwisting all the chains that tie 

The hidden soul of harmony j[^ 

That Orpheus' ^ self may heate his head 

From, golden slumber on a bed 

Of heaped Elysian ^ flowers, and hear 

Such strains as would have won the ear 

Of Pluto to have quite set free 

His half-regained Eurydice. 150 

These delights if thou canst give. 

Mirth, with thee I mean to live. 

1 The soft, voluptuous music of the Lydians as opposed to the harsher 
Phrygian or Dorian music. " Lap " is a corruption of the word " wrap," 
meaning to infold. 

2 Joined inseparably. 

3 Appreciative. 

4 Orpheus was the most famous of all musicians. His wife Eurydice hav- 
ing died, he descended into Hades to bring her back to life. Charmed by 
the sweetness of his music, Pluto consented that Eurydice should return with 
him to the upper world, on condition that he should not look back until they 
were safely outside the bounds of Hades. When almost out, however, Or- 
pheus, forgetting himself, turned around to see if she were coming, and she 
vanished from his sight. 

5 The Elysian Fields, or Isles of the Blest, were the regions where those 
who were beloved of the gods dwelt in happiness, wandering among flowers 
and enjoying all the beauties which delight the senses or the imagination. 

2 



1 8 MILTON 



IL PENSEROSO. 

Hence, vain deluding Joys, 

The brood of Folly without father bred! 
How little you bested,^ 

Or fill the fixed 2 mind with all your toys ! 
Dwell in some idle brain, 

And fancies fond ^ with gaudy shapes possess,* 
As thick and numberless 

As the gay motes that people the sunbeams, 
Or likest hovering dreams, 

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus'^ train. 10 

But, hail ! thou Goddess ^ sage and holy ! 
Hail, divinest Melancholy! 
Whose saintly visage is too bright 
To hit ^ the sense of human sight. 
And therefore to our weaker view 
O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue ; 
Black, but such as in esteem 
Prince Memnon's ^ sister might beseem, 
Or that starred Ethiope queen ^ that strove 

1 Help ; avail. Used now rarely, and only as a participle. 

2 Steady ; sober. 

3 The word " fond" lias here its original meaning, " foolish." 

4 Fill, or occupy. 

5 Morpheus (" the shaper ") was the son of Sleep and the god of Dreams. 

6 Compare the characterization of Melancholy which follows with that given 
in the first ten lines of L 'Allegro. 

"^ Touch. 

8 Memnon, the son of Tithonus and Aurora, was a king of Ethiopia, slain 
by Achilles in the siege of Troy. Although black, he was famed for his 
beauty. His sister was Hemera. 

y Cassiopeia, Queen of Ethiopia, boasted that the beauty of her daughter 
Andromeda exceeded that of the Nereids, or sea nymphs. Both mother and 



IL PENSEROSO. 19 

To set her beauty's praise above 20 

The Sea Nymphs, and their powers offended. 

Yet thou art higher far descended : 

Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore 

To sohtary Saturn bore ;i 

His daughter she ; in Saturn's reign 

Such mixture was not held a stain. 

Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 

He met her, and in secret shades 

Of woody Ida's ^ inmost grove, 

Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 

Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure. 

Sober, steadfast, and demure, 

All in a robe of darkest grain,^ 

Flowing with majestic train, 

And sable stole of cypress lawn * 

Over thy decent ^ shoulders drawn. 

Come ; but keep thy wonted state, 

With even step, and musing gait, 

daughter were "starred," i.e., transferred to the skies as constellations of 
stars. Cassiopeia is represented in old astronomical prints as a black female 
figure marked with white stars. 

1 This conception of the parentage of Melancholy is as fanciful as tliat 
in L'Allegro of the parentage of Mirth, and is equally original with Milton. 
Vesta was the goddess of the domestic hearth, and therefore symbolizes quiet 
contemplation ; while Saturn, the son of Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Terra), 
represents retirement. By " Saturn's reign " is meant the golden age of the 
innocence of the human race, while there was " yet no fear of Jove." 

2 There were several mountains called Ida. The one here alluded to is on 
the island of Crete, and was a favorite trysting place of the gods. 

3 Tyrian purple. The word " grain " was applied to the dried body of an 
insect (the size of a seed or grain) from which the Tyrian dye was obtained ; 
afterwards it was applied to the dye itself and to the color produced by it. 

4 " Stole of cypress lawn," i.e., robe of crape of the finest kind. The 
word "cypress," used alone, denotes crape, while lawn denotes the finest 
quality of cloth. 

5 Comely; graceful. 



20 MILTON. 

And looks commercing with the skies, 

'Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: 40 

There, held in holy passion still, 
Forget thyself to marble,^ till 
With a sad leaden downward cast 
Thou fix them on the earth as fast. 
And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 
Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet. 
And hears the Muses ^ in a ring 
Aye^ round about Jove's altar sing; 
And add to these retired Leisure, 

That in trim gardens takes his pleasure ; 50 

But, first and chiefest, with thee bring 
Him that yon soars on golden wing, 
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,^ 
The Cherub Contemplation ; 
And the mute Silence hist ^ along, 
'Less Philomel ^ will deign a song. 
In her sweetest saddest plight. 
Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, 
While Cynthia '^ checks her dragon yoke 

1 " Forget thyself," etc., i.e., become as insensible to your surroundings 
as a statue. 

2 The nine Muses were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. They 
were : Calliope, Muse of epic poetry ; Clio, Muse of history ; Erato, Muse of 
love ditties; Euterpe, Muse of lyric poetry; Melpomene, Muse of tragedy; 
Polyhymnia, Muse of sacred poetry ; Terpsichore, Muse of choral song and 
dance ; Thalia, Muse of comedy ; and Urania, Muse of astronomy. 

^ Always ; forever. 

4 See Ezehiel x. i, 2, and 6. Ezekiel describes a vision of a sapphire 
throne, the wheels of which were four cherubs, each wheel or cherub being 
full of eyes all over, while in the midst of them and underneath the throne 
was a burning fire. Milton brings into his company one of these cherubs, 
whom he names Contemplation. 

5 Hush, or whisper. 

6 " 'Less Philomel," i.e., unless the nightingale. 

7 A name for the goddess of the moon. Cynthia's chariot was drawn by 



IL PENSEROSO. 21 

Gently o'er the accustomed oak.i 60 

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, 

Most musical, most melancholy! 

Thee, chauntress,^ oft the woods among 

I woo, to hear thy evensong; 

And, missing thee, I walk unseen 

On the dry smooth-shaven green, 

To behold the wandering moon, 

Riding near her highest noon, 

Like one that had been led astray 

Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 70 

And oft, as if her head she bowed, 

Stooping through a fleecy cloud. 

Oft, on a plat of rising ground, 

I hear the far-off curfew ^ sound. 

Over some wide-watered shore. 

Swinging slow with sullen roar ; 

Or, if the air will not permit, 

Some still removed place will fit. 

Where glowing embers through the room 

Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 

Far from all resort of mirth. 

Save the cricket on the hearth. 

Or the bellman's * drowsy charm 

horses and not by dragons, as here represented. It was Ceres, the goddess 
of plenty, who had a " dragon yoke." Shakespeare several times alludes to 
the dragon team of night. 

1 " Accustomed oak," i.e., the oak where the nightingale was accustomed 
to sing and the poet was wont to listen to her. 

2 Songstress. 

3 From French, couvre-feii ("cover fire"); the bell which was rung in 
the evening as a signal that all fires Avere to be covered and all lights extin- 
guished. The custom, which was instituted as a law by William the Con- 
queror, was still quite generally observed in Milton's time. 

4 The watchman who patrolled the streets and called out the hour of night. 
Sometimes he repeated scraps of pious poetry in order to charm away danger. 



2 2 MILTON. 

To bless the doors from nightly harm. 
' Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, 
Be seen in some high lonely tower, 
Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,i 
With thrice-great Hermes,^ or unsphere 
The spirit of Plato, to unfold 

What worlds or what vast regions hold 90 

The immortal mind that hath forsook 
Her mansion in this fleshly nook ;^ 
And of those demons that are found 
In fire, air, flood, or underground, 
Whose power hath a true consent * 
With planet or with element. 
Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy 
In sceptered pall ^ come sweeping by, 
Presenting Thebes,^ or Pelops' line. 

Or the tale of Troy divine, 100 

Or what (though rare) of later age 
Ennobled hath the buskined '^ stage. 
But, O sad Virgin! that thy power 

1 The constellation of the Great Bear, which in these latitudes never sets. 
To " outwatch the Bear " would be to remain awake until daybreak. 

2 Hermes Trismegistus, an ancient Egyptian philosopher, the supposed 
author of certain once-famous works on philosophy. 

3 " Unsphere tlie spirit of Plato," etc., i.e., study Plato's philosophy of 
the immortality of the soul, and of the relation of the spirits (" demons ") to 
the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, over which they presided. The 
literal meaning of the phrase is " bring back the disembodied spirit of Plato 
from the sphere which he now inhabits." 

* Sympathy. 

^ " Sceptered pall," i.e., royal robes. 

6 The three most popular subjects of Greek tragedy were those relating to 
the city of Thebes, to the descendants of Pelops (an early king of Greece), 
and to the memorable Avar with Troy. 

■^ The buskin was the high -heeled boot worn by the actors of tragedy in 
the theaters of ancient Greece. It is therefore sometimes used as a symbol of 
the tragic drama. See note on " sock," L'Allegro, line 132. 



IL PENSEROSO. 23 

Might raise Musasus 1 from his bower ; 

Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing 

Such notes as, warbled to the string, 

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek. 

And made Hell grant what love did seek;2 

Or call up him that left half told 

The story of Cambuscan bold, 110 

Of Camball, and of Algarsife, 

And who had Canace to wife. 

That owned the virtuous ring and glass ; 

And of the wondrous horse of brass 

On which the Tartar king did ride \^ 

And if aught else great bards * beside 

In sage and solemn tunes have sung, 

Of turneys, and of trophies hung, 

Of forests, and enchantments drear. 

Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 

Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, 

Till civil-suited ^ Morn appear. 

Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont 

With the Attic boy ^ to hunt. 

But kerchieft '^ in a comely cloud, 

1 An ancient Greek minstrel, or poet. 

2 See note on L'Allegro, line 145. 

3 " Or call up him," etc. An allusion to the poet Chaucer (1340-1400) 
and the poem The Squiers Tale, which he left unfinished. In this tale 
Cambuscan is a king of Tartary ; Camball and Algarsife are his sons ; and 
Canac^ is his daughter. The horse of brass is a present from a neighboring 
king, as are also Canace's ring and glass. The word "virtuous" here 
means " having magic power." 

4 " And if aught else," etc. A reference probably to the poets Ariosto, 
Tasso, and Spenser, and the romantic character and underlying moral purpose 
of their works. 

5 Contrast this description of Morning with that in L'Allegro. 
^ Cephalus, an Athenian youth, beloved by Aurora. 

"^ Having the head covered, as with a kerchief. 



24 MILTON. 

While rocking winds are piping loud, 
• Or ushered with a shower still, 
When the gust hath blown his ^ fill, 
Ending on the rustling leaves. 

With minute drops ^ from off the eaves. 130 

And, when the sun begins to fling 
His flaring beams, me. Goddess, bring 
To arched walks of twilight groves. 
And shadows brown, that Sylvan*^ loves. 
Of pine, or monumental oak, 
Where the rude ax with heaved stroke 
Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, 
Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. 
There, in close covert, by some brook, 
Where no prof an er eye may look, 140 

Hide me from day's garish eye, * 
While the bee with honeyed thigh. 
That at her flowery work doth sing. 
And the waters murmuring, 
With such consort ^ as they keep, 
Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. 
And let some strange mysterious dream 
Wave at his wings, in airy stream 
Of lively portraiture displayed. 

Softly on my eyelids laid ; 150 

And, as I wake, sweet music breathe 
Above, about, or underneath. 
Sent by some Spirit to mortals good. 
Or the unseen Genius of the wood. 

1 Its. 

2 " Minute drops," i.e., drops falling slowly and at regular intervals as 
the shower comes to an end. Compare with " minute gun." 

3 Sylvanus, the god of the woods. 

* " Day's garish eye," i.e., the dazzling sun. 
5 Concert; harmony. 



IL PEXSEROSO. 25 

But let my due feet ^ never fail 

To walk the studious cloister's pale,- 

And love the high embowed '^ roof, 

With antique pillars massy proof,* 

And storied windows ^ richly dight. 

Casting a dim rehgious light. 160 

There let the pealing organ blow, 

To the full-voiced quire ^ below, 

In service high and anthems clear, 

As may with sweetness, through mine ear. 

Dissolve me into ecstasies, 

And bring all heaven before mine eyes. 

And may at last my weary age 

Find out the peaceful hermitage. 

The hairy gown and mossy cell, 

Where I may sit and rightly spell 170 

Of every star that heaven doth shew. 

And every herb that sips the dew,^ 

Till old experience do attain 

To something like prophetic strain. ^ 

These pleasures, Melancholy, give ; 

And I with thee will choose to live. 

1 " Due feet," i.e., feet that are due at a certain place at a certain time. 

2 "To walk," etc., i.e., to resort to the precincts or inclosure of some 
building devoted to study or religious meditation. The word " pale " means 
here " inclosure " or " boundary." 

^ Arched. 

* Massive enough to be proof against the great weight which they are 
intended to support. 

5 " Storied windows," i.e., windows of stained glass with Scripture stories 
represented on them. 

6 Old spelling of choir. 

"^ " Rightly spell," etc., i.e., study aright the phenomena of nature. 
8 Utterance. 



COMUS: A MASQUE. 



THE PERSONS. 



The Attendant Spirit, after- 
wards in the habit of Thyrsis. 
Com us, with his Crew. 
The Lady. 



First Brother. 
Second Brother. 
Sabrina, the Nytnph. 



The first Scene discovers a Wild Wood. 
The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. 

Before the starry threshold of Jove's court 

My mansion is, where those immortal shapes 

Of bright aerial spirits live insphered ^ 

In regions mild of calm and serene air, 

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 

Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, 

Confined and pestered ^ in this pinfold ^ here. 

Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being. 

Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives. 

After this mortal change, to her true servants lo 

Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. 

Yet some there be that by due steps aspire 

1 In the sphere assigned to them. Compare with II Penseroso, hne 88. 

2 Encumbered. " Pester " originally meant " a clog for horses in a pas- 
ture," hence, in its verbal signification, " to impede." 

3 A. pound, pen, fold, or inclosure for confining stray cattle. 

26 



<l 



COMUS: A MASQUE. 27 

To lay their just hands on that golden key 1 
That opes the palace of eternity. 
To such my errand is ; and, but for such, 
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds ^ 
With the rank vapors of this sin-worn mold.^ 

But to my task. Neptune ^ besides the sway 
Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream. 
Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove,^ 20 

Imperial rule of all the seagirt isles 
That, hke to rich and various gems, inlay 
The unadorned bosom of the deep ; 
Which he, to grace his tributary gods. 
By course commits to several ^ government, 
And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns. 
And wield their httle tridents. But this Isle,'^ 
The greatest and the best of all the main, 
He quarters to his blue-haired deities ;^ 

1 "Yet some," etc. St. Peter is represented as carrying the golden key 
with which to unlock the gates of heaven (see Lycidas, line no). Milton 
here means that there are some who by their virtuous lives strive to merit 
admittance into heaven. 

2 " Ambrosial weeds," i.e., immortal garments. Ambrosia was the food 
of the gods. For " weeds," see note on L'Allegro, line 120. 

3 World. 

* The god of the sea and of all waters. His scepter was a three-pronged 
fork, or trident. 

^ " Took in by lot," etc. The sons of Saturn, after the dethronement of 
their father, divided the government of the world by lot among themselves. 
Jupiter (high Jove) obtained the heavens and the mainland ; Neptune, the sea 
and its islands ; and Pluto (nether Jove), the infernal regions. 

^ Separate. 

■^ Great Britain. 

8 " Quarters to," etc., i.e., assigns to the deities of the sea. Neptune and 
his subordinates are referred to in classical poetry as " green -haired." Pos- 
sibly Milton adopted " blue-haired " as more fitly symbolizing the sea waves ; 
perhaps, also, he had in mind the blue-stained Britons who fought with 
Caesar. 



28 MILTON. 

And all this tract ^ that fronts the falling sun 30 

A noble Peer ^ of mickle ^ trust and power 

Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide 

An old and haughty nation,* proud in arms : 

Where his fair offspring,^ nursed in princely lore, 

Are coming to attend their father's state, 

And new-intrusted scepter. But their way 

Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood,^ 

The nodding horror of whose shady brows 

Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger ; 

And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 

But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, 

I was dispatched for their defense and guard : 

And listen why ; for I will tell you now 

What never yet was heard in tale or song. 

From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. 

Bacchus,'^ that first from out the purple grape 
Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, 
After the Tuscan mariners transformed, 
Coasting the Tyrrhene ^ shore, as the winds listed. 
On Circe's island^ fell. (Who knows not Circe, 50 

The daughter of the vSun, whose charmed cup 

1 Wales. 2 The Earl of Bridgewater (see Introduction, p. 6). 

3 Great ; much. * The Welsh. 

5 The three children of the Earl of Bridgewater, who were now coming to 
Ludlow Castle on the occasion of their father's induction into office. 

6 This is probably an allusion to the densely wooded region of Shropshire 
in the neighborhood of Ludlow Castle. 

'^ The god of wine and revelry. 

^ Italian. The story is that on one occasion Tuscan pirates attempted to 
carry Bacchus to Italy to sell him as a slave. Suddenly the chains dropped 
from his limbs and he assumed the form of a lion. The ship stood still while 
vines grew up and entwined themselves round the mast and sails ; and the 
pirates, in terror, leaped into the sea, where they were transformed into 
dolphins. 

^ JExa., near the shore of Tuscany. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 29 

Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, 

And downward fell into a groveling swine?) 

This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, 

With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth. 

Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son 

Much like his father, but his mother more. 

Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus ^ named : 

Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, 

Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,- 60 

At last betakes him to this ominous wood, 

And, in thick shelter of black shades embowered. 

Excels his mother at her mighty art ; 

Offering to every weary traveler 

His orient liquor in a crystal glass. 

To quench the drouth of Phoebus ;^ which as they taste 

(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst). 

Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance. 

The express resemblance of the gods, is changed 

Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 

Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, 

All other parts remaining as they were. 

And they, so perfect is their misery, 

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, 

But boast themselves more comely than before, 

And all their friends and native home forget, 

To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. 

Therefore, when any favored of high Jove 

Chances to pass through this adventurous glade. 

Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 

I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, 

1 This genealogy of Comus is purely the invention of Milton's fancy, and 
has no warrant in ancient mythology. 

2 " Celtic," etc., i.e., France and Spain. 

^ " Drouth," etc., i.e., the thirst caused by the sun's heat. Phoebus was 
the sun god, or personification of the sun. 



30 MILTON. 

As now I do. But first I must put off 

These my sky robes, spun out of Iris' ^ woof, 

And take the weeds and hkeness of a swain 

That to the service of this house belongs; 

Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, 

Well knows ^ to still the wild winds when they roar, 

And hush the waving woods ; nor of less faith, 

And in this office of his mountain watch 

Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 

Of this occasion. But I hear the tread 

Of hateful steps ; I must be viewless now. 



CoMUS enters, zvith a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with 
him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but other- 
wise like men and women, their apparel glistering.^ They come in making 
a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. 

Cot7ius. The star * that bids the shepherd fold ^ 
Now the top of heaven doth hold ; 
And the gilded car of day 
His glowing axle doth allay 
In the steep Atlantic stream;^ 
And the slope sun his upward beam 
Shoots against the dusky pole, 

Pacing towards the other goal 100 

Of his chamber in the east.'^ 
Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, 

1 The personification of the rainbow. It maybe inferred that the Attendant 
Spirit's sky robes were of the colors of the rainbow. 

2 Supply "how." 3 Glittering. 
^ The evening star, Hesperus or Venus. 

5 Drive his sheep into the fold. ■ 

6 " In the steep," etc., i.e., in the sloping Atlantic flood, where it curves 
below the western horizon. 

"7 " Pacing towards," etc., i.e., returning towards his rising place in the 
east. 






I 



COM US: A MASQUE. 31 

Midnight shout and revelry, 

Tipsy dance and joUity. 

Braid your locks with rosy twine,^ 

Dropping odors, dropping wine. 

Rigor now is gone to bed ; 

And Advice with scrupulous head, 

Strict Age, and sour Severity, 

With their grave saws,^ in slumber lie. no 

We, that are of purer fire. 

Imitate the starry quire,^ 

Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, 

Lead in swift round the months and years. 

The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 

Now to the moon in wavering morrice^ move; 

And on the tawny sands and shelves 

Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. 

By dimpled brook and fountain brim, 

The wood nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 

Their merry wakes ^ and pastimes keep : 

What hath night to do with sleep ? 

Night hath better sweets to prove ; 

Venus ^ now wakes, and wakens Love. 

Come, let us our rites begin ; 

'Tis only daylight that makes sin. 

Which these dun shades will ne'er report. — 

Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, 

1 Roses twined together. 2 Wise sayings ; sober rules. 

3 Choir. Used here, perhaps, with its original signification, a band of 
choral dancers. The poet has also in mind the ancient notion of the music 
of the spheres. 

^ The morris, or Moorish dance, was introduced into England in the reign 
of Edward III. It was a prominent feature of the May Day and other out- 
door festivities. 

5 Nocturnal amusements. Originally a " wake " was the watch or sitting 
up till late before one of the church holidays. 

^ Goddess of love and beauty. 



32 MILTON. 

Dark-veiled Cotytto,i to whom the secret flame 

Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130 

That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb 

Of Stygian darkness ^ spets^ her thickest gloom, 

And makes one blot of all the air! 

Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, 

Wherein thou ridest with Hecat',^ and befriend , 

Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end I 

Of all thy dues be done, and none left out ; 

Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 

The nice Morn on the Indian steep. 

From her cabined loophole peep,^ 140 11 

And to the telltale Sun descry *' 

Our concealed solemnity. 

Come, knit hands, and beat the ground 

In a light fantastic round.^ \The Measzire. 

Break off, break off ! "^ I feel the different pace 
Of some chaste footing near about 'this ground. 
Run to your shrouds ^ within these brakes and trees ; 
Our number may affright. Some virgin sure 
(For so I can distinguish by mine art) 
Benighted in these woods ! Now to my charms, 150 
And to my wily trains : ^ I shall ere long 
Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed 
About m)^ mother Circe. Thus I hurl 
My dazzling spells into the spongy ^^ air, 

1 A Thracian goddess whose licentious festivals were celebrated at night. 

2 " Stygian darkness," i.e., the darkness of the infernal regions. See note 

on L'AUegro, line 3. ■ 

2 Spits ; ejects. 

4 Hecate, the goddess of sorcery, supposed to preside over all nocturnal 
horrors. 

5 "Nice Morn," etc., i.e., the fastidious dawn peeps from among the 
clouds on the eastern (Indian) horizon. 

6 Dance; measure. '^ " Break off," i.e., cease dancing, 
s Hiding places. 9 Allurements. 10 Absorbent. 



I 



COM US: A MASQUE. ZZ 

Of power to cheat the e)re with blear ^ illusion, 

And give it false presentments, lest the place 

And my quaint habits breed astonishment, 

And put the damsel to suspicious flight ; 

Which must not be, for that's against my course. 

I, under fair pretense of friendly ends, i6o 

And well-placed words of glozing 2 courtesy, 

Baited with reasons not unplausible, 

Wind me into the easy-hearted man, 

And hug him into snares. When once her eye 

Hath met the virtue ^ of this magic dust, 

I shall api^ear some harmless villager, 

AVhom thrift keeps up about his country gear,^ — 

But here she comes ; I fairly step aside. 

And hearken, if I ma}^, her business here. 

The Lady enters. 

Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 170 
My best guide now. Methought it was the sound 
Of riot and ill-managed merriment. 
Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe 
Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds,^ 
When, for their teeming flocks atnd granges full. 
In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,^ 
And thank the gods amiss.''' I should be loath 
To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence 
Of such late wassailers ; yet, oh! where else 
Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 

In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? 
My brothers, when they saw me wearied out 

1 Blurred ; deceitful. 2 Flattering. 3 Peculiar power. 

* Business ; dutie^. 5 Peasants. 

6 God of shepherds and pastoral life. 

■^ By acts altogether displeasing to them. 

3 



34 MILTON. 

With this long way, resolving here to lodge 

Under the spreading favor of these pines, 

Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket side 

To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit 

As the kind hospitable woods provide. 

They left me then when the gray-hooded Even, 

Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,i 

Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain.2 igo 

But whejpe they are, and why they came not back, 

Is now the labor of my thoughts. 'Tis hkeliest 

They had engaged their wandering steps too far;^ 

And envious darkness, ere they could return. 

Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, 

Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end. 

In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars 

That Nature hung \\\ heaven, and filled their lajnps 

With everlasting oil, to give due light 

To the misled and lonely traveler? 200 

This is the place, as well as I may guess. 

Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth 

Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear ; 

Yet naught but single ^ darkness do I find. 

What might this be ? A thousand fantasies 

Begin to throng into my memory. 

Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 

And airy tongues that syllable men's nariies 

On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. 

These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 

The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 

By a strong siding ^ champion. Conscience, — 

1 " Votarist in palmer's weed," i.e., a pilgrim clad in the garb of one re- 
turning from the Holy Sepulcher. 

2 " Phoebus' wain," i.e., the sun car. See note on litie 66. 

3 " Engaged," etc., i.e., had undertaken to go too far. 
^ Only. 5 Supporting. 



COMUS: A MASQUE. 35 

O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, 

Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, 

And thou unblemished form of Chastity ! 

I see ye visibly, and now believe 

That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill 

Are but as slavish officers of vengeance. 

Would send a glistering guardian, if need were. 

To keep my life and honor unassailed. — 220 

Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud 

Turn forth her silver lining on the night ? 

I did not err : there does a sable cloud 

Turn forth her silver lining on the night. 

And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. 

I cannot hallo to my brothers, but 

Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest 

I'll venture ; for my new-enlivened ^ spirits 

Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. 



SONG. 

Sweet Echo,'^ sweetest nymph, that liv^st unseen 230 

Within thy airy shell 
By slow Meander's ^ margent green. 
And in the violet-etnbroidered vale 
Where the lovelorn nightingale 
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well : 
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair 
That likest thy Narcissus are? 

O, if thou have 
Hid them in some flowery cave, 

Tell me but where, 240 

1 Encouraged. 

2 The nymph Echo loved Narcissus ; as her love was not returned, she 
pined away until nothing remained but her beautiful voice. 

3 A winding river in Asia Minor. 



36 MILTON. 

Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere I '^ 
So mafst thou be translated to the skies, 
And give resounding grace to all heaven^ s harmonies ! 

Comiis. Can an)?- mortal mixture of earth's mold 
Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment ? 
Sure something holy lodges in that breast, 
And with these raptures moves the vocal air 
To testify his - hidden residence. 
How sweetly did they float upon the wings 
Of silence, through the empty- vaulted night, 250 

At every fall smoothing the raven down ^ 
Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard 
My mother Circe, with the Sirens * three, 
Amidst the fiowery-kirtled Naiades,^ 
Culhng their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 
Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul. 
And lap it in Elysium :^ Scylla wept, 
And chid her barking waves into attention, 
And fell Charybdis "^ murmured soft applause. 
Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 

And in sweet madness robbed it of itself ; 

1 " Queen," etc., i.e., Queen of Speech, Daughter of the Air. 

2 Its. The antecedent of the word is " something holy," line 246. The 
neuter possessive pronoun its is of comparatively recent origin. Spenser did 
not use it at all, nor is it found anywhere in the authorized version of the 
English Bible. It occurs but nine times in Shakespeare's works ; and Milton 
seems to prefer the old form, his. 

3 " The raven down," i.e., the black, feathery softness. 

* Sea nymphs, who by their songs lured people to death. In ancient 
mythology they had no connection with Circe. 

5 Nymphs of the fountains and streams. 

6 " Lap it," etc., i.e., enwrap it in heavenly bliss. See note on " Elysi- 
an," L'Allegro, line 147. 

"^ Scylla and Charybdis were rocks upon opposite sides of the Sicilian 
Straits. The myth states that Circe transformed the nymph Scylla, who 
lived under the rock of that name, into a barking dog. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 37 

But such a sacred and home-felt dehght, 

Such sober certainty of waking bliss, 

I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, 

And she shall be my queen. — Hail, foreign wonder! 

Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, 

Unless the goddess that in rural shrine 

^Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan, ^ by blest song 

Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog 

To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 

Lady. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise 
That is addressed to unattending ears. 
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift ^ 
How to regain my severed company, 
Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 
To give me answer from her mossy couch. 

Covins. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you 
thus ? 

Lady. Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. 

Conms. Could that divide you from near-ushering 
guides ? 

Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 

Coimis. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? 

Lady. To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. 

Cojmis. And left your fair side all unguarded. Lady? 

Lady. They were but twain, and purposed quick re- 
turn. 

ComiLS. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. 

Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit!^ 

Connis. Imports their loss, beside the present need? 

Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 

Comiis. W^ere they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? 

Lady. As smooth as Hebe's ^ their unrazored lips. 290 

1 See note on II Penseroso, line 134. 

2 " Extreme shift," i.e., the last expedient. 

3 Guess. 4 See note on L'Allegro, line 29. 



3& MILTON. 

Comics. Two such I saw, what time the labored ox 
In his loose traces from the furrow came, 
And the swinked hedger i at his supper sat. 
I saw them under a green mantling vine, 
That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots ; 
Their port ^ was more than human, as they stood. 
I took it for a fairy vision 
Of some gay creatures of the element,^ 
That in the colors of the rainbow live, 300 

And play i' the plighted ■^ clouds. I was awe-strook,'^ 
And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek. 
It were a journey like the path to heaven 
To help you find them. 

Lady. Gentle villager. 

What readiest way would bring me to that place?* 

Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. 

Lady. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, 
In such a scant allowance of starlight. 
Would overtask the best land pilot's art, 
Without the sure guess of well-practiced feet. 310 

Comics. I know each lane, and every alley green, 
Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood. 
And every bosky bourn ^ from side to side, 
My daily walks and ancient neighborhood ; 
And, if your stray attendance "^ be yet lodged, 
Or shroud ^ within these limits, I shall know 
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark 
From her thatched pallet ^ rouse. If otherwise, 

1 ** Swinked hedger," i.e., tired laborer. 

2 Bearing; manner. The poet here pays a compliment to the two sons of 
the Earl of Bridgewater, who were about to come on the stage. 

3 Air. 4 Plaited; interwoven. ^ Awe-struck. 
6 Shrubby-banked watercourse. '^ Attendants. 

8 Are hidden. See the use of the same word as a noun, line 147. 

9 The lark makes her nest on the ground. 



COMUS: A MASQUE. 39 

I can conduct you, Lady, to a low 

But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 

Till further quest. 

Lady, Shepherd, I take thy word, 

And trust thy honest-offered courtesy. 
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, 
With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls 
And courts of princes, where it first was named,^ 
, And yet is most pretended. In a place 
Less warranted than this, or less secure, 
I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. — 
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial 
To my proportioned strength! 2 — Shepherd, lead on. 330 

\Excuiit. 

Enter the Two Brothers. 

Elder Bivther. Unmuffle, ye faint stars ; and thou, fair 
moon, 
That wont'st to love the traveler's benison, 
Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, 
And disinherit Chaos that reigns here 
In double night of darkness and of shades ; 
Or, if your influence be quite dammed up 
With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, 
Though a rush candle from the wicker hole ^ 
Of some clay habitation, visit us 

With thy long leveled rule of streaming light, 340 

And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,'^ 
Or Tyrian Cynosure. 

1 Courtesy meant originally the manners of the court. 

2 " Square my trial," etc., i.e., adapt my trial to the proportions of my 
strength. 

5 Wicker-crossed opening, or window. 

* *' Star of Arcady," i.e., any star in the constellation of the Great Bear. 
It was so called from Calisto, daughter of a king of Arcadia, who was changed 



40 MIL TON. 

Seco7id Brothe)'. Or, if our eyes 
Be barred that happiness, might we but hear 
The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes,^ 
Or sound of pastoi'al reed with oaten stops^^ 
Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock 
Count the night watches to his feathery dames, 
'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, 
In this close dungeon of innumerous ^ boughs. 
But, oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 

Where may she wander now, whither betake her 
From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? 
Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, 
Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm 
Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. 
What if in wild amazement and affright, 
Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp 
Of savage hunger, or of savage heat! 

Elder Brother. Peace, brother : be not over-exquisite * 
To cast the fashion^ of uncertain evils; 360 

For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, 
What need a man forestall his date of grief. 
And run to meet what he would most avoid? 
Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, 
How bitter is such self-delusion! 
I do not think my sister so to seek,^ 
Or so unprincipled in virtue's book. 
And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 

into that constellation. The Greek sailors steered their vessels by a star of 
Arcady; the Phoenicians, by the Cynosura. See note on L'Allegro, line 80. 

1 " Wattled cotes," i.e., cots or sheltering places made of wattled withes, 
or twigs. 

"^ The stops are the holes in an oaten pipe, or reed, used as a musical in- 
strument. 

3 Innumerable. 4 Overanxious, or inquisitive. 

5 " To cast the fashion," i.e., to predict the nature. 

6 ** So to seek," i.e., so ignorant what to do. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 41 

As that the single want of light and noise 

(Not being in danger, as 1 trust she is not) 370 

Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, 

isjid put them into misbecoming plight. 

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would 

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 

Were in the flat sea sunk.^ And Wisdom's self 

Oft seeks ^ to sweet retired solitude, 

Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, 

She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, 

That, in the various bustle of resort. 

Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 

He that has light within his own clear breast. 

May sit i' the center,^ and enjoy bright day : 

But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts 

Benighted walks under the midday sun ; 

Himself is his own dungeon. 

Second Brother. 'Tis most true 

That musing Meditation most affects 
The pensive secrecy of desert cell. 
Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, 
And sits as safe as in a senate house ; 
For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, 
Or do his gray hairs any violence? 
But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree* 
Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard 
Of dragon watch with unenchanted eye 
To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, 
From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. 



1 ' ' Virtue could, " etc. Spenser says : ' ' Virtue gives herselfe light, through 
darknesse for to wade." — Faerie Queene, Book I., line I. 

2 Resorts. 3 In the center of the earth, or utter darkness. 

* The tree which was under the guardianship of the Hesperides, and which 
bore golden apples. It was watched by a dragon. 



4 2 MILTON. 

You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps 

Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, 

And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 

Danger will wink on Opportunity, 

And let a single helpless maiden pass 

Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. 

Of night or loneliness it recks me not ;^ 

I fear the dread events that dog ^ them both, 

Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person 

Of our unowned ^ sister. 

Elder Brother. I do not, brother, 

Infer as if I thought my sister's state 
Secure without all doubt or controversy ; 
Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 

• Does arbitrate the event, my nature is 
That I incline to hope rather than fear, 
And gladly banish squint ^ suspicion. 
My sister is not so defenseless left 
As you imagine ; she has a hidden strength. 
Which you remember not. 

Second Bi^other. What hidden strength, 

Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? 

Elder Brother. I mean that too, but yet a hidden 
strength, 
Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. 
'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420 

She that has that is clad in complete steel. 
And, like a quivered nymph ^ with arrows keen, 
May trace huge forests, and unharbored heaths, 
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds ; 
Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 

1 " It recks," etc., i.e., I take no account. 

2 Pursue. 3 Unprotected. * Looking askance or sideways. 

5 A reference to one of the nymphs or companions of the chaste goddess 
Diana. See note on h'ne 441. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 43 

No savage fierce, bandit, or mountaineer, 

Will dare to soil her virgin purity. 

Yea, there where very desolation dwells, 

By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, 

She may pass on with unblenched ^ majesty, 430 

Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. 

Some say no evil thing that walks by night. 

In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, 

Blue meager hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost 

That breaks his magic chains at curfew ^ time, 

No goblin or swart faery ^ of the mine. 

Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. 

Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call 

Antiquity from the old schools of Greece 

To testify the arms of chastity? 440 

Hence had the huntress Dian ^ her dread bow, 

Fair silver-shafted queen, forever chaste. 

Wherewith she tamed the brinded ^ lioness 

And spotted mountain pard, but set at naught 

The frivolous bolt of Cupid ;^ gods and men 

Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. 

What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield ^ 

1 Fearless. 

2 See note on II Penseroso, line 74. There was a popular superstition that 
certain evil spirits were always abroad from curfew time till the crowing of 
the cock at dawn. 

3 " Swart faery," i.e., black fairy, or elf, such as, according to ancient 
superstition, dwelt in mines. 

4 " Diana (Cynthia) was not only goddess of the moon, but also of the 
chase. In works of art she is represented as a beautiful maiden, clad in a short 
hunting dress, and with a crescent on her well-poised head." (Guerber.) 

5 Brindled; streaked. 

6 Cupid, son of Venus and Mars, was god of love. The bolts or darts 
which he shot from his bow had the power of exciting love in the heart of 
any one whom they pierced. 

'' The three Gorgons were hideous monsters whose faces were so fearful 
that whoever looked on them became " concealed stone." One of these 



44 MILTON. 

That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, 

Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, 

But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 

And noble grace that dashed brute violence 

With sudden adoration and blank awe ? 

So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity 

That, when a soul is found sincerely so, 

A thousand liveried angels lackey her. 

Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt. 

And in clear dream and solemn vision 

Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear ; 

Till oft ^ converse with heavenly habitants 

Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 

The unpolluted temple of the mind. 

And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence. 

Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, 

By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, 

But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 

Lets in defilement to the inward parts. 

The soul grows clotted by contagion, 

Imbodies, and imbrutes,^ till she quite lose 

The divine property of her first being. 

Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 

Oft seen in charnel vaults and sepulchers, 

Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, 

As loath to leave the body that it loved, 

And linked itself by carnal sensualty 

To a degenerate and degraded state.^ 

creatures, Medusa, was slain by Perseus, and her head was presented to 
'Minerva, who placed it in her shield, where the face continued to retain its 
petrifying power. 

1 Frequent. 

2 " Imbodies, and inibrutes," i.e., becomes carnal and brutal. 

3 Milton has here adapted a well-known passage from Plato's Phredo, in 
which Socrates is speaking of souls that have given themselves up to corporeal 



COM US: A MASQUE. 45 

Seco7id Brother. How charming is divine philosophy! 
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
But musical as is Apollo's lute,^ 
And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, 
Where no crude surfeit ^ reigns. 

Elder Brother. List! list! I hear 480 

Some far-off hallo break the silent air. 

Second Brother. Methought so too ; what should it be '^ 

Elder Brother. For certain, 

Either some one, like us, night foundered here ; 
Or else some neighbor woodman ; or, at worst. 
Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 

Second Bi^other. Heaven keep my sister! Again, 
again, and near! 
Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 

Elder Brother. I'll hallo. 

If he be friendly, he comes well : if not, 
Defense is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! 

Enter the Attendant Spirit, habited like a shepherd. 

That hallo I should know. What are you ? speak. 490 
Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes^ else. 

Spirit. What voice is that ? my young lord ? speak 

again. 
Second Brother. O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, 

sure. 
Elder Brother. Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft 
delayed 

pleasures. When the body dies, these souls, he says, being unfit to soar to 
heaven, are weighed down to earth, and wander as visible, shadowy phantoms 
amongst the tombs. 

1 Apollo was the god of song and music, and was said to have been the in- 
ventor of the flute. 

2 " Crude surfeit," i.e., unheal thful excess. 

3 " Fall on iron stakes," i.e., come in contact with our swords. 



4 6 MILTON. 

The huddling brook ^ to hear his madrigal, 
• And sweetened every musk rose of the dale. — 

How earnest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram 

Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, 

Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? 

How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 

Spirit. O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, 
I came not here on such a trivial toy 
As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth 
Of pilfering wolf ; not all the fleecy wealth 
That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought 
To this my errand, and the care it brought. 
But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? 
How chance she is not in your company? 

Elder Brother. To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without 
blame 
Or our neglect, we lost her as we came, 510 

Spirit. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true. 

Elder Brother. What fears, good Th3''rsis? Prithee 2 
briefly show. 

Spirit. I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous 
(Though S0 esteemed by shallow ignorance) 
What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, 
Storied of old in high immortal verse 
Of dire Chimeras '^ and enchanted isles. 
And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to hell ; 
For such there be, but unbeHef is blind. 

1 " Huddling brook." The waters are huddled together as they delay to 
listen to his music. The poet is here paying a compliment to Henry Lawes, 
who acted the part of the Attendant Spirit _and had arranged the music for the 
masque. 

2 I pray thee. 

3 The chimera was a mythical monster having a lion's head, a goat's body, 
and a dragon's tail. Hence, a name applied to any incongruous fancy or 
creature of the imagination. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 47 

Within the navels of this hideous wood, 520 

Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, 
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, 
Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, 
And here to every thirsty wanderer 
By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, 
With many murmurs ^ mixed, whose pleasing poison 
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks. 
And the inglorious Hkeness of a beast 
Fixes instead, unmolding reason's mintage 
Charactered in the face.-^ This have I learnt 530 

Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts * 
That brow this bottom glade ; whence night by night 
He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl 
Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, 
Doing abhorred rites to Hecate 
In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers. 
Yet have they many baits and guileful spells 
To inveigle and invite the unwary sense 
Of them that pass unweeting ^ by the way. 
This evening late, by then ^ the chewing flocks 540 

Had ta'en their supper on the savory herb 
Of knotgrass dew-besprent, and were in fold, 
I sat me down to watch upon a bank 
With ivy canopied, and interwove 
With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 
Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy. 
To meditate '^ my rural minstrelsy. 
Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close 

1 Center. 2 Muttered incantations. 

3 " Unmolding," etc., i.e., destroying the stamp of reason impressed in 
the human face. 

4 Small, inclosed fields. 5 UnAvitting; not knowing the dangers. 
6 " By then," i.e., about the time when. 

'7 " To meditate," i.e., to practice; to devote some time to. 



48 MILTON. 

The wonted roar was up ^ amidst the woods, 

And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 

At which I ceased, and listened them awhile, 

Till an unusual stop of sudden silence 

Gave respite to the drowsy frighted ^ steeds 

That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. 

At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound 

Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes. 

And stole upon the air, that even Silence 

Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might 

Den}^ her nature, and be never more. 

Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 

And took in strains that might create a soul 

Under the ribs of Death. ^ But, oh I ere long 

Too well I did perceive it was the voice 

Of my most honored Lady, your dear sister. 

Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear ; 

And '' O poor hapless nightingale," thought I, 

** How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare! " 

Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, 

Through paths and turnings often trod by day, 

Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 

Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise 

(For so by certain signs I knew), had met 

Already, ere my best speed could prevent, 

The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey ; 

Who gently asked if he had seen such two, 

Supposing him some neighbor villager. 

1 Had begun. 

2 " Drowsy frighted," etc., i.e., the drowsy steeds of night that have 
been frighted by the barbarous dissonance of Comus and his crew. 

3 " Even Silence," etc., i.e., even Silence was so charmed .by this music 
that she would willingly have ceased to exist if she could always be displaced 
by it. I could hear nothing else, for these strains were so ravishing that 
they might even have restored a soul within a lifeless skeleton. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 49 

Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed 
Ye were the two she meant ; with that I sprung 
Into swift flight, tih I had found you here ; 
But further know I not. 

Second Bi'otlier. O night and shades, 580 

How are ye joined with hell in triple knot 
Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, 
Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence 
You gave me, brother? 

Elder Bi'othei'. Yes, and keep it still ; 

Lean on it safely ; not a period ^ 
Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats 
Of malice or of sorcery, or that power 
Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm : 
Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt ; 
Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590 

Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm 
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. 
But evil on itself shall back recoil, 
And mix no more with goodness, when at last, 
Gathered like scum, and settled to itself. 
It shall be in eternal restless change 
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail. 
The pillared firmament is rottenness. 
And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on! 
Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 

May never this just sword be hfted up ; 
But, for that damned magician, let him be girt 
With all the grisly legions that troop 
Under the sooty flag of Acheron, - 
Harpies ^ and Hydras,^ or all the monstrous forms 

J- Sentence. 

2 Acheron was one of the rivers of the mfernal regions ; as here used, it 
means hell itself. 

3 Loathsome winged monsters. ^ Huge water snakes. 

4 



50 MILTON. 

'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, 
And force him to return his purchase ^ back, 
Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, 
Cursed as his life. 

Spirit. Alas ! good venturous youth, 

I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise ; 6 1 o 

But here thy sword can do thee little stead. 
Far other arms and other weapons must 
Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. 
He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, 
And crumble all thy sinews. 

Elder Brother. Why, prithee. Shepherd, 

How durst thou then thyself approach so near 
As to make this relation? 

Spirit. Care and utmost shifts ^ 

How to secure the Lady from surprisal 
Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, 
Of small regard to see to,^ yet well skilled 620 

In every virtuous * plant and healing herb 
That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. 
He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing ; 
Which when I did, he on the tender grass 
Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy. 
And in requital ope his leathern scrip, 
And show me simples '^ of a thousand names. 
Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. 
Amongst the rest a small unsightly root. 
But of divine effect, he culled me out. 63 o 

The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it. 
But in another country, as he said, 
Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil : 
Unknown, and hke esteemed, and the dull swain 

1 " His purchase," i.e., what he has stolen; his booty. 

2 See note on line 273. ^ To look upon. 

^ Medicinal. 5 Simple medicinal remedies. 



COMUS: A MASQUE. 51 

Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon ;i 

And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly 2 

That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. 

He called it Haemony,^ and gave it me, 

And bade me keep it as of sovran use 

'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 

Or ghastly Furies' apparition. 

I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, 

Till now that this extremity compelled. 

But now I find it true ; for by this means 

I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised. 

Entered the very lime twigs of his spells,^ 

And yet came off. If you have this about you 

(As I will give you when we go) you may 

Boldly assault the necromancer's hall ; 

Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 

And brandished blade rush on him ; break his glass, 

And shed the luscious liquor on the ground ; 

But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew 

Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high. 

Or, like the sons of Vulcan,^ vomit smoke. 

Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. 

Elder B7'other. Thyrsis, lead on apace ; Fll follow thee ; 
And some good angel bear a shield before us! 

1 " Clouted shoon," i.e., patched or hobnailed shoes. 

2 A fabulous herb having the power to protect against the charms of Circe. 
*' It was black at the root, but the flower was like to milk. Moly the gods 
call it, but it is hard for mortal men to dig ; howbeit, with the gods all things 
are possible." (Odyssey, 303-306.) 

3 A name probably coined by Milton from Hsemonia (Thessaly), a land 
once famous for magic. 

4 " Very lime twigs," etc., an allusion to the method of catching birds by 
means of twigs covered with a sticky substance. 

5 Vulcan was the god of fire. The allusion is probably to Cacus, a son 
of Vulcan, who, according to Virgil, vomited huge volumes of smoke when 
pursued by Hercules. 



52 *" MILTON. 

The Scene changes to a stately palace , set out zvith all manner of delic'wiisness : 
spft ifitisic, tables spread with all damties. CoMUS appears zvith his rabble, 
and the Lady set in an enchanted chair : to whom he offers his glass ; which 
she puts by, and goes about'^ to rise. 

Coimis. Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand, 
Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 

And you a statue,'-^ or as Daphne "^ was, 
Root bound, that fled Apollo. 

Lady. Fool, do not boast. 

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind 
With all thy charms, although this corporal rind * 
Thou hast immanacled, while ^ Heaven sees good. 

Comus. Why are you vexed. Lady? why do you frown? 
Here dwell no frowns, nor anger ; from these gates 
Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures 
That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, 
When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 

Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. 
And first behold this cordial julep ^ here. 
That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, 
With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. 
Not that nepenthes "^ which the wife of Thone 
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena, 
Is of such power to stir up joy as this. 
To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. 
Why should you be so cruel to yourself, 
And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 

For gentle usage and soft delicacy? 

1 " Goes about," i.e., attempts. 

2 " And you," etc., i.e., as if you were a statue. 

3 A maiden beloved by Apollo. Being pursued by him, and likely to be 
overtaken, she prayed for aid, and was transformed into a laurel tree. 

4 " Cor])oral rind," i.e., bodily protection ; body. 5 go long as. 

6 " Cordial julep," i.e., exhilarating drink. " Julep " is from two Persian 
words meaning " rose " and " water." 

'^ A care-dispelling drug, thought to have been opium. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 53 

But you invert the covenants of her trust, 

And harshly deal, like an ill boiTower, 

With that which you received on other terms, 

Scorning the unexempt condition 

By which all mortal frailty must subsist, 

Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, 

That have been tired all day without repast. 

And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin. 

This will restore all soon. 

Lady. 'Twill not, false traitor! 690 

'Twill not restore the truth and honesty 
That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. 
Was this the cottage and the safe abode 
Thou told'st me of ? What grim aspects are these. 
These oughly-headed ^ monsters? Mercy guard me! 
Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! 
Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence 
With vizored 2 falsehood and base forgery? 
And would'st thou seek again to trap me here 
With liquorish^ baits, fit to insnare a brute? 700 

Were it a draft for Juno when she banquets, 
I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None 
But such as are good men can give good things ; 
And that which is not good is not delicious 
To a well-governed and wise appetite. 

Coimis. O foohshness of men! that lend their ears 
To those budge ^ doctors of the Stoic ^ fur, 

1 Ugly-headed. 2 Masked. 

^ From a German word meaning to " lick the lips ;" hence, dainty, delicious. 

* A kind of fur, or lamb's wool, formerly used for trimming scholastic 
habits. The word is sometimes used in the sense of " big," and may also 
mean " surly." 

5 The Stoics were Greek philosophers who taught that men should repress 
all exhibition of passion and should submit to unavoidable necessity without 
complaining. 



54 MILTON. 

And fetch their precepts from the Cynic ^ tub, 

Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! 

Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 

With such a full and unwithdravving hand, 

Covering the earth with odors, fruits, and flocks, 

Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, 

But all to please and sate the curious taste? 

And set to work millions of spinning worms. 

That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, 

To deck her sons ; and, that no corner might 

Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins 

She hutched ^ the all-worshiped ore and precious gems, 

To store her children with. If all the world 720 

Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse. 

Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,^ 

The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, 

Not half his riches known, and yet despised ; 

And we should serve him as a grudging master, 

As a penurious niggard of his wealth. 

And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons. 

Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, 

And strangled with her waste fertihty : 

The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with 

plumes, 730 

The herds would overmultitude their lords ; 
The sea o'erfraught* would swell, and the unsought 

diamonds 
Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep. 
And so bestud with stars, that they below 
Would grow inured to hght, and come at last 
To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. 

1 The Cynics were Greek philosophers noted for the austerity of their lives. 
Diogenes, the most distinguished member of the sect, lived in a tub. 

2 Laid up, as in a box. 3 Coarse woolen cloth. 
4 Overloaded; overfilled. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 55 

List, Lady ; be not coy, and be not cozened 
With that same vaunted name. Virginity. 
Beauty is Nature's coin ; must not be hoarded, 
But must be current ; and the good thereof 740 

Consists in mutual and partaken bhss, 
Unsavory in the enjoyment of itself. 
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose 
It withers on the stalk with languished head. 
Beauty is Nature's brag,^ and must be shown 
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, 
Where most may wonder at the workmanship. 
It is for homely features to keep home ; 
They had their name thence : coarse complexions 
And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 

The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. 
What need of vermeil-tinctured 2 lip for that, 
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? 
There was another meaning in these gifts ; 
Think what, and be advised ; you are but young yet. 
Lady. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips 
In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler 
Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, 
Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. 
I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments^ 760 

And Virtue has no tongue to check her pride. 
Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, 
As if she would her children should be riotous 
With her abundance. She, good cateress, 
Means her provision only to the good, 
That live according to her sober laws. 
And holy dictate of spare Temperance. 
If every just man that now pines with want , 

1 Boast. 2 Vermilion-colored. 

3 " Bolt her arguments," i.e., set them forth with fine discrimination. 



56 MILTON. 

Had but a moderate and beseeming share 

Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 

Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 

Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed 

In unsuperfluous even proportion, 

And she no whit encumbered with her store ; 

And then the Giver would be better thanked, 

His praise due paid : for swinish gluttony 

Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, 

But with besotted base ingratitude 

Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? 

Or have I said enow? ^ To him that dares 780 

Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words 

Against the sun clad power of chastity. 

Fain would I something say; — yet to what end? 

Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend 

The sublime notion and high mystery 

That must be uttered to unfold the sage 

And serious doctrine of virginity; 

And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know 

More happiness than this thy present lot. 

Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 

That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence ;2 

Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. 

Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth 

Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits 

To such a flame of sacred vehemence 

That dumb things would be moved to sympathize, 

And the brute ^ Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, 

Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, 

Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. 

Comus. She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 

Her words set off by some superior power ; 

1 Enough. 2 Defense ; swordplay. 3 Senseless. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 57 

And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew 

Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove 

Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus ^ 

To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, 

And try her yet more strongly. — Come, no more! 

This is mere moral babble, and direct 

Against the canon laws of our foundation.^ 

I must not suffer this ; yet 'tis but the lees 

And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 

But this will cure all straight;^ one sip of this 

Will bathe the drooping spirits in deHght 

Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. 



The Brothers ricsh in ivitk swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his hand, 
and break it against the ground : his ront ??iake sign of resistance, but are 
all driven in. The Attendant Spirit comes iti. 

Spirit. What! have you let the false enchanter scape? 
Oh, ye mistook ; ye should have snatched his wand, 
And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, 
And backward mutters of dissevering power. 
We cannot free the Lady that sits here 
In stony fetters fixed and motionless. 
Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 

Some other means I have which may be used. 
Which once of Mehbceus * old I learnt, 
The soothest ^ shepherd that e'er piped on plains. 

1 A name applied to the dark and gloomy space under the earth through 
which the souls of the dead were obHged to pass on their way to Hades. 
Milton uses it here for Tartarus, the prison house into which Jupiter cast the 
Titans, the adherents of his father Saturn. 

2 Institution. ^ Straightway ; immediately. 

* Meliboeus is the name of one of the shepherds in Virgil's Eclogues ; but 
Milton here probably refers to Geoffrey of Monmouth, an old English chron- 
icler, the first to relate the story of Locrine and his daughter, 

5 Truest. 



58 MILTON. 

There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, 
• That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream ; 
Sabrina is her name : a virgin pure ; 
Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, 
That had the scepter from his father Brute. ^ ■ 
She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit 
Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, 830 

Commended her fair innocence to the flood 
That stayed her flight with his ^ crossflowing course. 
The water nymphs, that in the bottom played, 
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, 
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' ^ hall ; 
Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank * head, 
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel,^ 
And through the porch and inlet of each sense 
Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 

And underwent a quick immortal change. 
Made Goddess of the river.^ Still she retains 
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve 
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, 
Helping all urchin blasts,'^ and ill-luck signs 

1 Brute, or Brutus, was said to have been a descendant of ^neas, and the 
first king of Britain. It was from him that the island derived its name. See 
note on line 923, 

2 Its. 

^ The good spirit of the sea, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs. 

^ Languid ; drooping. 

^ " Nectared lavers," etc., i.e., baths into which nectar had been poured 
and where asphodels were growing. The asphodel was a flower found in 
Elysium. 

6 Geoffrey of Monmouth relates that Queen Guendolen, jealous of Sabrina 
and her mother, Estrildis, raised an army and made war upon Locrine. 
Locrine was defeated and slain, and Guendolen, assuming the government, 
commanded Estrildis and Sabrina to be cast into the river, which was ever 
afterwards called the Severn. 

'^ " Helping," etc., i.e., remedjdng the evil influences of bad fairies, such 



COM US: A MASQUE. 59 

That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, 

Which she with precious vialed liquors heals : 

For which the shepherds, at their festivals, 

Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, 

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream, 850 

Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils ; 

And, as the old swain said, she can unlock 

The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell. 

If she be right invoked in warbled song ; 

For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 

To aid a virgin, such as was herself. 

In hard besetting need. This will I try, 

And add the power of some adjuring verse. 



SONG. 

Sabrina fair, 

Listen where thou art sitting 860 

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, 

In twisted braids of lilies knitting 
The loose traijt of thy amber-dropping hairj 

Listen for dear honor's sake, 

Goddess of the silver lake. 
Listen and save / 



Listen, and appear to us. 

In name of great Oceanus,^ 

By the earth-shaking N^eptune's mace. 

And Tethys^'^ grave majestic pace J 870 

By hoary Nereus'' wrinkled look, 

And the Carpathian wizard'' s"^ hookj 

as the blasting of corn, etc. " Urchin " originally meant the hedgehog, but 
came later to be applied to goblins, imps, and, finally, to small children. 

1 An earlier sea god than Neptune. 2 The wife of Oceanus. 

3 Proteus, the shepherd of the sea, who had the care of Neptune's flocks 
of seals. 



6o MILTON. 

By scaly Tritoii's i wiiiding shell, 

And old soothsaying Glaucus' '^ spell ; 

By Leiicothea^s ^ lovely hands, 

A7id her son that rides the strands ; 

By Thetis^ ^ tinsel-slippered feet, 

And the songs of Sirens sweet; 

By dead Parthenope's ^ dear tomb, 

An d fair Ligea^s^ golden cojnb, 880 

Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks 

Sleeking her soft alluring locks j 

By all the nymphs that nightly dance 

Upon thy streams with wily glance ; 

Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 

Fro7h thy coral-paven bed, 

And bridle ifi thy headlong wave, 

Till thou our summons answered have. 

Listen and save / 

Sabrina rises, attended by Water Nymphs, and sings. 

By the rushy-fringed bank, 890 

Where grows the willow and the osier dank. 

My sliding chariot stays, 
Thick set with agate, and the aziLrn shee?i '^ 
Of tiirkis'^ blue, aiid emerald greeny 

That in the channel strays j 

1 The son of Neptune. He is represented with a trumpet made of a wind- 
ing shell, and is sometimes called the herald of the sea. 

2 A Greek fisherman who obtained a place among the sea gods, and had 
the power of prophecy. 

^ Ino, fleeing from her mad husband, King Athamas, leaped into the sea 
with her young son in her arms. The Nereids received them and made them 
sea deities, changing the name of Ino to Leucothea, or the " white goddess." 
Her son was Palsemon, the guardian of harbors. 

4 A Nereid, called " the silver-footed," the mother of Achilles. 

^ One of the Sirens, whose dead body was washed ashore on the present 
site of Naples. 

^ Another Siren. The name signifies " the shrill voiced." 

"^ *' Azurn sheen," i.e., azured gleam. 8 Turquoise. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 6 1 

Whilst from off the waters fleet 
Thus I set 7ny printless feet 
O^er the cowslip's velvet head. 

That bends not as I tread. 
Gentle swain, at thy request 900 

I atn here I 

Spirit. Goddess dear, 
We implore thy powerful hand 
To undo the charmed band 
Of true virgin here distressed 
Through the force and through the wile 
Of unblessed enchanter vile. 

Sabiina. Shepherd, 'tis my office best 
To help ensnared chastity. — 

Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 

Thus I sprinkle on thy breast 
Drops that from my fountain pure 
I have kept of precious cure ; 
Thrice upon thy finger's tip, 
Thrice upon thy rubied lip: 
Next this marble venomed seat, 
Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, 
I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. 
/ Now the spell hath lost his hold ; 

And I must haste ere morning hour 920 

To wait in Amphitrite's ^ bower. 

Sabrixa descends, and the Lady rises out of her scat. 

Spirit. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, 
Sprung of old Anchises' ^ line, 

1 Wife of Neptune. 

2 Anchises, a Trojan prince antl father of ^neas, escaped from the Greeks 
at the destruction of Troy by being carried out of the burning city on the back 
of his son. Brutus, the grandfather of Sabrina, was the great-grandson of 
yEneas. 



62 MILTON. 

May thy brimmed waves for this 

Their full tribute never miss 

From a thousand petty rills, 

That tumble down the snowy hills : 

Summer drouth or singed ^ air 

Never scorch thy tresses ^ fair, 

Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 

Thy molten crystal fill with mud ; 

May thy billows roll ashore 

The beryl and the golden ore ; 

May thy lofty head be crowned 

With many a tower and terrace round, 

And here and there thy banks upon 

With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. 

Come, Lady ; while Heaven lends us grace. 
Let us fly this cursed place. 

Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 

With some other new device. 
Not a waste "^ or needless sound 
Till we come to holier ground. 
I shall be your faithful guide 
Through this gloomy covert wide ; 
And not many furlongs thence 
Is your father's residence, 
Where this night are met in state 
Many a friend to gratulate 

His wished presence, and beside 950 

All the swains that there abide 
With jigs and rural dance resort. 
We shall catch them at their sport, 
And our sudden coming there 



1 Singeing; scorching hot. 

2 Referring to the foHage along the banks of the Severn. 

3 Useless. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 63 

Will double all their mirth and cheer. 
Come, let us haste ; the stars grow high, 
But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky, 

i7ie Scene changes, presenting Litdlozo Toivn, and the President'' s Castle ; 
then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, ivith 
the Two Brothers and the Lady. 

SONG. 

Spirit. Back, shepherds y back! Enough your play 
Till next su7ishine holiday. 

Here be, without duck or nod,^ . 960 

Other trippings to be trod 
Of lighter toes, and S7(ch court guise 
As Mercury 2 did first devise 
With the mincing Dryades ^ 
On the lawns a?td on the leas. 

This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother. 

Noble Lord and Lady bright, 
I have brought ye new delight. 
Here behold so goodly grown 
Three fair branches of your own. 

Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 

Their faith, their patience, and their truth. 
And sent them, here through hard assays * 
With a crown of deathless praise. 
To triumph in victorious dance 
O^er sensual folly and intemperance. 

The dances ended, the Spirit epilogitizes. 

Spirit. To the ocean now I fly, 
And those happy climes that lie 

1 " Duck or nod," forms of obeisance peculiar to country folk, or servants. 

2 Mercury (Hermes), the messenger of the gods, was the ideal of agility 
and grace. 

3 Wood nymphs. ^ Trials. 



64 MILTON. 

Where day never shuts his eye, 

Up in the broad fields of the sky. 

There I suck the hquid air, 980 

All amidst the gardens fair 

Of Hesperus, 1 and his daughters three 

That sing about the golden tree. 

Along the crisped shades and bowers 

Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; 

The Graces ^ and the rosy-bosomed Hours ^ 

Thither all their bounties bring. 

There eternal Summer dwells, 

And west winds with musky wing 

About the cedarn * alleys fling 990 

Nard and cassia's ^ balmy smells. 

Iris ^ there with humid bow 

Waters the odorous banks, that blow 

Flowers of more mingled hue 

Than her purfled '^ scarf can show, 

And drenches with Elysian dew 

(List, mortals, if your ears be true) 

Beds of hyacinth and roses, 

Where young Adonis ^ oft reposes, 

Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 

In slumber soft, and on the ground 

1 See note on line 393. " The Hesperides were daughters of Hesperus, 
god of the West." (Guerber.) 

2 See note on L' Allegro, line 15. 

3 The Horae (the goddesses of the seasons) were three in number, and 
were the daughters of Jupiter and Themis. 

4 Cedar lined. 

5 " Nard and cassia," i.e., spikenard and aromatic laurel. 

6 See note on line ^t^. 

7 Embroidered. 

8 A beautiful youth, loved by Venus, and sla^n by a wild boar which he 
was hunting. On account of Venus's grief for him the gods of the lower 
world allowed him to return to the earth for six months every year. 



COM US: A MASQUE. 65 

Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.^ 

But far above, in spangled sheen, 

Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced 

Holds his dear Psyche,^ sweet entranced 

After her wandering labors long, 

Till free consent the gods among 

Make her his eternal bride. 

And from her fair unspotted side 

Two blissful twins are to be born, loio 

Youth and Joy ; so Jove hath sworn. 

But now my task is smoothly done : 
I can fly, or I can run 
Quickly to the green earth's end. 
Where the bowed welkin ^ slow doth bend. 
And from thence can soar as soon 
To the corners of the moon. 
Mortals, that would follow me, 
Love Virtue ; she alone is free. 

She can teach ye how to climb 1020 

Higher than the sphery • chime ;■* 
Or, if Virtue feeble were. 
Heaven itself would stoop to her. 

1 Venus. She was worshiped in Assyria as Astarte. 

2 Psyche, the youngest of three daughters of a king, was loved by Cupid. 
As a punishment for distrusting him she was forced to wander from place 
to place and to endure many hardships. Finally, however, Cupid claimed 
her as his " eternal bride," and she was admitted with him among the gods. 

3 " Bowed welkin," i.e., arched dome of the sky. 

* " Sphery chime," i.e., the njusic of the spheres ; the starry choir referred 
to in line 112. 



66 MILTON. 



LYCIDAS. 

In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately drowned 
in his passage from Chester on the Irish seas, 1637; and, by occasion, 
foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in their height. 

Yet once more, O ye laurels, ^ and once more, 

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, 

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. 

And with forced 2 fingers rude 

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 

Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear 

Compels me to disturb your season due ; 

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime. 

Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. 

Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew 10 

Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 

He must not float upon his watery bier 

Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 

Without the meed of some melodious tear. 

Begin, then, Sisters ^ of the sacred well 
That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring ; 
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. 
Hence with denial vain and coy excuse : 
So may some gentle Muse 

1 The laurel was sacred to Apollo, and has always been associated with 
poetry. The myrtle was sacred to Venus. 'Ivy was used to deck the brows 
of the learned, and was sacred to Bacchus. It has been suggested that Mil- 
ton, in naming these three plants, intends a delicate allusion to King's poetry, 
beauty, and learning. 

2 Unwilling. 

3 The nine Muses. See note on II Penseroso, line 47. By the " sacred 
well " the poet probably means the Pierian fountain at the foot of Mount 
Olympus, the birthplace of the Muses and the " seat of Jove." 



I 



LYCIDAS. 67 

With lucky words favor my destined urn,i 20 

And as he passes, turn 

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud ! 2 

For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill, 
Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill ; ^ 
Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 
Under the opening eyehds of the Morn, 
We drove a-field, and both together heard 
What time the grayfly winds her sultry horn,* 
Battening ^ our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 
Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 

Towards heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 
Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute ; 
Tempered to the oaten flute,^ 

Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns " with cloven heel 
From the glad sound would not be absent long; 
And old Damoetas ^ loved to hear our song. 

But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone, 
Now thou art gone and never must return! 
Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, 

1 " My destined urn," i.e., my approaching or inevitable death. The 
Romans deposited the ashes of their dead in urns. 

2 " vSable shroud," i.e., dark tomb. 

3 " For we were nursed," etc. Referring to the fact of their companion- 
ship at college, and the sameness of their tastes and pursuits. 

4 " Winds," etc., i.e., hums in the noontide heat. 
^ Feeding; fattening. 

6 " Meanwhile," etc. Reference is made to the early poetical attempts of 
Milton and King. The "oaten flute " was made of reeds or straws, and was 
a favorite musical instrument among shepherds ; hence it is emblematic of 
pastoral poetry. 

■^ The Satyrs of Greek mythology were represented as of a pleasure-loving 
nature, always engaged in dance and song. The Roman Fauns — half men, 
half goats — were of a similar nature. The names here refer to the college- 
mates of King and Milton. 

* A name frequently used in pastoral poetry. It is supposed to refer here 
to some " well-remembered Fellow of Christ's College." 



68 MILTON. 

\ 
With wild thyme and the gadding ^ane o'ergrown, 40 

And all their echoes, mourn. 

The willows, and the hazel copses green, 

Shall now no more be seen 

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 

As killing as the canker to the rose, 

Or taintworm to the weanling herds that graze, 

Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, 

When first the whitethorn blows ; 

Such, Lycidas, .thy loss to shepherd's ear. 

Where were ye. Nymphs, when the remorseless, deep 50 
Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? 
For neither were ye playing on the steep 1 
Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona ^ high. 
Nor yet where Deva "^ spreads her wizard stream. 
Ay me! I fondly dream 

" Had ye been there," — for what could that have done? 
What could the Muse * herself that Orpheus bore, 
The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, 
Whom universal nature did lament, 60 

When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 
His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? 

Alas! what boots it with uncessant care 
To tend the homel}^, slighted, shepherd's trade, 

1 "The steep," etc., probably Penmaenmawr in Wales, an old Druidic 
burial place, 

2 The wooded heights of the island of Anglesey, the favorite haunt of the 
Welsh Druids. 

3 The river Dee, the ancient boundary between England and Wales, and 
for that reason regarded with a kind of superstitious reverence. 

4 Calliope, the mother of Orpheus. The Thracian women, celebrating 
the orgies of Bacchus, became enraged at Orpheus, tore him in pieces, and 
threw his remains into the river Hebrus. His head was washed ashore on 
the island of Lesbos. 



LYCIDAS. 69 

. And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? 
Were it not better done, as others use,i 
To sport with Amarjdlis ^ in the shade, 
Or with the tangles of Neaera's^ hair? 
Fame is the spur that the clear ^ spirit doth raise 70 

(That last infirmity of noble mind) 
To scorn delights and live laborious days ; 
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, 
And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
Comes the blind Fury * with the abhorred shears, 
And sHts the thin-spun life. " But not the praise," 
Phoebus ^ replied, and touched my trembling ears : 
" Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
Nor in the glistering foil 

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies,^ 80 

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes 
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove ; 
As he pronounces lastly on each deed. 
Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." 

O fountain Arethuse,'^ and thou honored flood, 
Smooth-sliding Mincius,^ crowned with vocal reeds. 
That strain I heard was of a higher mood. 

1 Are accustomed to do. 

2 Amaryllis and Nesera are names of shepherdesses in the Greek and Latin 
pastorals. 

3 Noble ; pure. 

* It was one of the Fates, Atropos, and not a Fury, that was said to cut 
the threads of life. In speaking of her as blind, the poet means to imply 
that she knows no distinction. See Thumann's picture of the three Fates in 
Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome. 

5 Apollo is here referred to as the god of song. 

6 " Fame is no plant," etc., i.e., fame is not a product merely of this life, 
nor does it consist in the superficial glitter which delights the world, nor in 
the widespread notoriety which some men attain. 

"^ A fountain near Syracuse, sacred to the nymph Arethusa ; here men- 
tioned in allusion to the Sicilian poet, Theocritus, who was born there. 

8 A river in northern Ital)^, famous as flowing past the birthplace of Virgil. 



70 MILTON. 

But now my oat ^ proceeds, 

Ai^d listens to the Herald of the Sea,^ 

That came in Neptune's plea, 90 

He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 

What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain? 

And questioned every gust of rugged wings 

That blows from off each beaked promontory. 

They knew not of his story ; 

And sage Hippotades ^ their answer brings, 

That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed : 

The air was calm, and on the level brine 

Sleek Panope * with all her sisters played. 

It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 100 

Built in the eclipse,^ and rigged with curses dark, 

That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 

Next, Camus, ^ reverend sire, went footing slow, 
His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge,"^ 
Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 
Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.^ 
** Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge? " 

1 My pastoral muse. See note on line t^t^ above. 

2 Triton, son of Neptune, comes forward in the name of his father to 
make a judicial inquiry concerning the cause of the shipwreck in which 
Lycidas had perished. 

3 vEolus, king of the winds and son of Hippotes. 

* A sea nymph, one of the daughters of Nereus. See note on Nereus, 
Comus, line 835. 

5 It was a very common superstition that eclipses brought misfortune upon 
all undertakings that were begun or completed during their appearance. 

6 The genius of the river Cam, and of Cambridge University. 

"^ " The ' mantle hairy' is the hairy river weed that is found floating on 
the Cam ; and the ' bonnet ' is the sedge that grows in the river and along its 
edge." (Bell.) 

8 •' Sanguine flower," etc., referring to the hyacinth. Hyacinthus was a 
youth beloved by Apollo, and accidentally slain by him while playing at quoits. 
From his blood sprang the flower which bears his name, on the leaves of 
which are certain marks said to resemble the Greek word AI (" alas!"). 



LYCIDAS. 71 

Last came, and last did go, 

The Pilot 1 of the Galilean Lake ; 

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain 110 

(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). 

He shook his mitered locks,^ and stern bespake : — 

" How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,^ 

Enow of such as,'* for their belhes' sake, 

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! 

Of other care they little reckoning make 

Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, 

And shove away the worthy bidden guest. 

Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold 

A sheephook, or have learnt aught else the least 120 

That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! 

What recks it them ? ^ What need they ? They are sped ;^ 

And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs 

Grate on their scrannel '^ pipes of wretched straw ; 

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed. 

But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, 

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread ; 

Besides what the grim wolf ^ with privy paw 

Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 

But that two-handed engine at the door 130 

1 St. Peter. In Christian art he is always represented with two keys in 
his hands ; the one to open the gates of heaven, the other, to close them by 
force. See Comus, line 13. 

2 " Mitered locks," i.e., his head crowned with a bishop's headdress, or 
miter. 

3 " For thee, young swain." Edward King had been educated for the 
Church, and was about to be ordained. 

4 " Enow of such," etc. From here to the end of line 131, reference is 
made to Archbishop Laud and the debased character of the clergy during his 
administration. Laud had now been archbishop for five years. 

5 " What recks it them? " i.e., what do they care? 
^ Provided for. "^ Meager ; thin. 

^ Milton probably refers here to the Roman Catholic Church. 



72 MILTON. 

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." ^ 

Return, Alpheus;^ the dread voice is past 
That shrunk thy streams ; return, Sicihan Muse,^ 
And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 
Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 
Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use 
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, 
On whose fresh lap the swart star * sparely looks. 
Throw hither all your quaint enameled eyes, 
That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 140 
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 
Bring the rathe ^ primrose that forsaken dies. 
The tufted crowtoe, and pale jessamine. 
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, 
The glowing violet. 

The musk rose, and the well-attired woodbine. 
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
And every flower that sad embroidery wears ; 
Bid amaranthus all his ^ beauty shed, 
And daffadillies "^ fill their cups with tears, 150 

To strew the laureate hearse ^ where Lycid lies. " ^ 

For so, to interpose a little ease, 

1 " But that two-handed engine," etc., i.e., but the instrument of retribu- 
tion is ready, and will soon bring swift and complete punishment upon the 
corrupted clergy. See the latter part of the argument, or note, immediately 
following the title to this poem. 

2 The river god who was the lover of Arethusa, and made one with her in 
the fountain near Syracuse ; hence, like her, symbolizing pastoral poetry. 

3 The Muse of pastoral poetry. 

4 Sirius, the Dog Star ; called swart, or swarthy, on account of its sup- 
posed influence upon vegetation, being in the ascendency during the hottest 
months of the year. 

5 Early. 6 Jts. See note on Comus, line 248. 

"^ DaflFodils ; meaning the same as asphodels, from the Greek name of a 
flower of the lily family. 

8 " Laureate hearse," i.e., poet's tomb. See Note i, p. 66. 



LYCIDAS.^ 73 

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise, 

Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 

Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled ; 

Whether beyond the stoYmy Hebrides, 

Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 

Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world ; 

Or whether thou, to our moist vows ^ denied, 

Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus^ old, r6o 

Where the great Vision ^ of the guarded mount 

Looks towards Namancos and Bayona's hold.* 

Look homeward, Angel,^ now, and melt with ruth : 

And, O ye dolphins,*^ waft the hapless youth. 

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 
For L3^cidas, your sorrow, is not dead, 
Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 
So sinks the day-star ^ in the ocean bed. 
And yet anon repairs his drooping head. 
And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore^ 170 
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky : 
So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves,^ 
Where, other groves and other streams along, 

1 " Moist vows," i.e., tearful prayers. 

2 "Fable of Bellerus," i.e., fabled Bellerus. Bellerus is the name of, a 
Cornish giant, so called from Bellerium, the ancient name of Land's End, 
Cornwall. 

3 The vision of St. Michael, on St. Michael's Mount, near Land's End. 
The mountain is spoken of as " guarded," in allusion to the legend of the 
archangel's appearance on one of its crags. 

* Namancos and Bayona were near Cape Finisterre in Spain, and in the 
direct line of vision southwestward from Land's End. 

5 St. Michael. 

6 The allusion is to the story of the musician Arion, who, having thrown 
himself into the sea to escape from pirates, was taken up by dolphins, and 
carried on their backs safe to land. 

^ The sun. 8 Gold. 9 See Matt. xiv. 25. 



74 MILTON. 

Wit?i nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 

And hears the unexpressive ^ nuptial song,^ 

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 

There entertain him all the Saints above, 

In solemn troops, and sweet societies, 

That sing, and singing in their glory move, i8o 

And wipe the tears forever from his eyes.^ 

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 

Henceforth thou art the Genius * of the shore. 

In thy large recompense,^ and shalt be good 

To all that wander in that perilous flood. 

Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills. 
While the still morn went out with sandals gray : 
He touched the tender stops of various quills. 
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:^ 
And now the sun had stretched out" all the hills, 190 
And now was dropt into the M^estern bay. 
At last he rose, and twitched ^ his mantle blue : 
To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 

1 Inexpressible. 

2 " Nuptial song," i.e., marriage hymn. See Rev. xix. 6, 7, 9. 

3 See Isaiah xxv. 8, and Rev. vii. 17. * Guardian spirit. 

5 " In thy large recompense," i.e., as a great recompense to thee. 

6 The ancient pastoral poets wrote in the Doric dialect. A " Doric lay," 
therefore, is a pastoral poem or song. 

"*■ " Stretched out," i.e., lengthened the shadows of. 
s Drew closely about him. 



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014 154 032 4 

:NGLisii claH 



la^.;:fi-; :.Y Annotated 



MACAULAY'S SECOND ESSAY ON CHATHAM 
MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON MILTON. 
MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON ADDISON. 
IRVING'S SKETCH-BOOK (Ten selections) 
IRVING'S TALES OF A TRAVELER. 
THE JE COVERLEY PAPERS, from >i,p ^n 
SHAI^HSPEARE'S JULIUS C/€SAR. 
SHAKESPEARE'S TWELFTH NIGHT. 

lAKESPEARE'S MERCHANT OF VENICE 
S:-1AKESPEARE'S MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM 
•v'^'^TT"^, MARM!ON. 

^ J i 1 ^^ LADY OF THE LAKE 

:OTT'S I'VANHO; 

' 'S WOODSTOCK (in preparation). 
'.hKSON'S AMERir- SCHOLAR, m.li- 

RELIANCE AND COAii L..SATION. 
<NOLD'S SOHRAB AND RUSTUM. 
ILTON'S L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO, COM! 

}E ELIOT'S SILA 




AiVihKi^ 



